The Demanding Poor

I made my way into the laundry mat buried beneath all of the dirty laundry that I had managed to accumulate over the last week and a half. After sorting and fitting everything into a washer I had five loads on my hands. Five loads equal $6.25. “No problem” I thought, “I just broke this twenty and have a ten dollar bill I can use.” I went to the change machine and made my first mistake.

As the quarters rolled out of the machine I made eye contact with a woman folding laundry. She said something that I couldn’t hear over the clang of the quarters coming out. “I can’t hear you” I said. She came over to me and asked if I could give her money for her to buy bread.

Crud, I thought, she knows I have money. “Yeah I can give you a dollar.” I thought that would be enough for her to leave me alone.

“I need five.” She said matter-of-factly. I looked at her. Was she demanding an amount from her begging?

“Well…I can only give you a dollar.” I tried to sound polite as I opened up my wallet to fish out a single dollar bill.

“You have a five in there I saw, you not giving me it is really rude.” I stared at her as she took the dollar bill out of my hand. She stared right back expecting me to give her money.

“Look, I can’t give you anymore money, I need this.” I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. I was justifying why I should keep my own money to some women. I wanted to scream at her “Do you know what I do earn this money?? I wipe old peoples butt’s. What do you do other then harass people on the street.” Instead I just walked away.

“Your rude” she said and turned on her heel and went back to folding her laundry.